Compound-Radius Fingerboards

Yes, I heard this term a while back for guitar fingerboards, to provide both comfort for the fretting hand when playing bar chords near the nut and mitigate fretting out (the problem of adjacent frets preventing the string from vibrating when the string is pulled up by the fingers). Not much of a selling-point to guitar players because they want to spend the big bucks for "vintage" guitars and all the problems associated with them...namely, being old.

Are bassists going to go the same route when they see compound radiuses on basses, an idea that might lower the strings to the fingerboard for greater comfort without compromising the string's ability to vibrate freely? We'll get to see how smart we are too, won't we...

My DB, yes, my EUB, no; also I'm pretty sure Bob Branstetter doesn't use a compound radius. But the norm with violin family instruments is a compound radius fingerboard.

Click to expand...

Actually, I have in fact made boards with a compound radius. With my jig is is fairly easy to make an adapter for compound radius. I have just found that for my synthetic ebony boards that a constant radius work just as well for low action jazz setups and is much easier to keep the board the same when it comes time to plane it.

If I were using real ebony, I doubt if I would feel any different about it. It's just that I can easily obtain ebony boards and it just isn't' worth my time to make them from scratch. If I were making a board primarily for arco, I would probably make it compound.